Everyone loves a success story, and in many areas, little old Aotearoa leads the way, punching well above our weight on the world stage.
But what if I told you that we’re seriously lagging behind in crucial areas, like financial education for our next generation? The NZ government commission for financial capability studied our kids, schools, parents and teachers, and what they found was pretty below average.
- Students reporting they know a lot about managing money: 78%
- Teachers that agree with this statement: 19%
- Students’ most requested area for instruction: Budgeting
- Students learning little or nothing about money: 50%
- Teachers regularly teaching money matters: 18%
- School leaders reporting an emphasis on financial matters: 5%
The stats and mismatches go on, but the TL;DR of the report is:
”There is a relatively low level of financial knowledge compared to other countries”
To us, this is unacceptable so we’re setting out to change things for the better. This isn’t a dig at teachers or schools, or anyone. Maybe we just haven’t decided who’s responsible for the ephemeral subject of financial literacy and so our kids are falling through the cracks?
